After our delivery early the next morning, We got started to Virginia for our next pickup. I still cannot believe how much running we are doing this week. After this trip we will have traveled over 6000 miles in one week. So it is a beautiful day and we have a little time to waste so we pull in to a rest area and hang out.
I left the dogs out to play and run and I walked around and talked to Starla on the phone.
A van pulled in with 2 parents and 3 little girls. One of the girls had a skateboard with only 2 wheels on it, one in front and one in back. She was so good on that skateboard that we were amazed. I even took some video of her with my phone but I can't figure out how to get it onto my computer yet.
Then we made our pickup and started the drive to Missouri.
I was still driving at that point, but Pops wasn't sleeping. He was texting and talking to people on the phone mostly about hunting and stuff.
I drove us through Knoxville and then Pops took over. I went to sleep. We were in Memphis when I woke up. Pops did get to pull over and sleep for a few hours during the night. So I helped him find our delivery address. It was just across the state line, a little north of Memphis in a very rural area with a lot of cotton fields.
I am fasinated by cotton fields, when I think of how cotton used to be planted and harvested and the technology that they have developed over the years to help with the harvesting. I see the fields and fields of white fluff and imagine how many pairs of blue jeans or cotton T-shirts or whatever that this might produce. Wow. It is amazing.
We have been seeing the huge retangular bales of cotton, but this is the first time that I have seen cotton round bales. And there is so much cotton that "gets away" and blows along the highway that it almost looks like a mattress exploded.
Anyway... we made our delivery and was now headed for Memphis for layover.
While in Memphis, we got all of our laundry done and got showers. It was nice to be parked and be able to relax. Although we couldn't go outside because it was raining, really hard. It rained hard the whole time we were there.
We hoped that being in Memphis would get us a load going to Texas. Our "new" truck is ready and we were wanting to go pick it up. And sure enough, Sunday morning we got a load headed to Houston.
So we had our church service. We had communion and listened to one of the sermons that Keenan had mailed us and we used my First Place book to do a brief study/discussion lesson. It was a good time of worship.
Then we picked up our load. We were hauling animal fats (in the form of pellets) to a chemical plant to be used in various food products as flavorings.
I realized that we would be able to travel through Louisiana!!! I love Louisiana. I love Baton Rouge. I love the cajan rednecks there and I love most of the foods. I couldn't wait to stop and get me some boudin balls.
But most of those ideals were destroyed by this trip.
Being that it was Sunday night and the end of Thanksgiving weekend, everyone was returning home after traveling for the holidays and LSU college kids were returning to school in Baton Rouge and traffic was a nightmare. What usually is a 2 hour drive from Hammond, LA to where I buy my boudin turned into a 4 1/2 hour drive with bumper to bumper traffic especially right through Baton Rouge. We would stop and start and stop and start and drive only a few yards each time. We even had to do that on the BIG BRIDGE across the Mississippi River!
When we were in Hammond getting fuel, I thought I better call ahead to order my boudin and asked them to put aside 8 balls which they said that they would. Two hours later I called again and told them that I would be delayed even longer than I thought and they said it was ok, my boudin was put aside.
When we finally got there I went inside to get my 8 boudin balls and came out with 6 big to-go containers. I wasn't sure what they had packed with boudin but I thought maybe some potato chips or cracklins or something. But no, turns out that I had several pounds of cooked boudin and many flavors. I took the order back inside and they told me that as soon as I left the store the rightful orderer of that boudin had come in right behind me and was very upset that her order had been given to someone else. Apparently she had some unflavorful language for the employees there.
But she saw me carry the bags back inside and followed me back into the store and was very happy to see her order still available, but after all of this I realized that my order was not to be found. Oh well. The lady kindly offered me a couple of her boudin balls and even though it wasn't what I was hoping for I did get to eat a boudin ball that evening.
We slept for a few hours there and then we drove on into Houston. We had to go through many high security measures and watch a security video to be allowed to enter the plant. We made our delivery and then were given a layover option of San Antonio which was perfect for us to be able to pick up our truck.
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